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He is so cute!! I need more of these guys!!

Anyways, so it's normal, right, for him to be protective of the food? I mean he could care less about protecting the sinking wafers of algae but the fruit and veg? oh my goodness!

He will watch the otos as they slowly come closer and then POUNCE like a ninja pl*co! LOL ROFL

And he doesn't really swim like any fish I have ever seen! He sort of waddles and jumps and darts! He is wicked cool!!

Also if he feels like eating some algae off a rock he won't let the otos anywhere near him. They could be innocently swimming by and then BAM!!!!!! He is fierce!!!

But then at other times when he doesn't want the food then he so doesn't care if they are eating on whatever.

Yes that sounds about right...

Haha, sounds very right. I have a female BN that is protective of all food in the tank. If she sees the (smaller) male BN on the zucchini on the other side of the tank, even if she's eating on her piece, she'll go over and shove the male off to eat his...
I've seen my gold nuggets do the pouncing darting eating thing too. very neat to watch!

I had to separate my BNs into different tanks for this reason. The smaller wasn't getting enough to eat even though I fed them at opposite ends of the tank.

I love how they're so innocuous until food is around, then it's "MINE MINE MINE!" with much thrashing. Just love it.

When there's no food and he's just hanging on the glass, my other fish sometimes gather around to look at him, as though they're thinking, "What the HELL is this thing?" but he doesn't care. Plecos are so awesome.

thanks everyone! yeah he is a character! glad he is behaving normally!

Also,

I have kept over 20 species of plecos/catfish in a multitude of different setups and tank sizes and have noticed that generally, the frequency as well as the intensity of the feeding time aggression TENDS to be lessoned or aggrevated depending on the decor. If the size of the tank is appropriate for the species, and you have a lot of plants, rocks, ornaments, etc. to break up the "territory" then feeding time tends to be more peaceful. A dominant plec does not rationalize that this is my side of the tank and thats your side of the tank... I think everything in plain view is "mine!", therefore if you break up that view with a lot of plants, etc. then they can't see the plec at the other end eating "his" food. Hope this helps.

thank you very much! good idea. the decor. break up line of sight liek I did in the female betta community.

He is the only one in there as far as pl*cos go. But he has 4 otos and a male betta. I will work on decor!

I had to separate my corys (and Brochis) and adult bristlenose as the male was so aggressive at feeding time- I doubt they'll ever kill another fish, but they were certainly causing a lot of fin damage to the corys and Brochis. However, the Panaque maccus are fine with the Corydoras, at least at the moment. The Panaque seem to spend a lot of time walking backwards- they're great at sticking to things and not letting go, but seem to be extremely poor swimmers.

Carp37 wrote:The Panaque seem to spend a lot of time walking backwards- they're great at sticking to things and not letting go, but seem to be extremely poor swimmers.

Until you try catching one that isn't stuck to some wood - they are surprisingly hard to catch when they try to avoid a net, but it takes quite a bit to "aggitate" them. If it's sitting on the wood, then you just lift the wood out and the fish comes with it (hold a net under just in case).

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Mats